TEMECULA: Freeway pot bust sets records

Document: Driver also admitted to earlier shipment

TEMECULA ---- The Wednesday confiscation of 28,000 pounds of
marijuana from a tractor-trailer rig was the largest single-vehicle
seizure the U.S. has seen in a decade, according to Riverside
County sheriff's officials.

The truck driver, who was taken into custody by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, admitted that he'd successfully
delivered a similar load to Ontario last week, federal authorities
said.

Although dozens of law enforcement officers in the region are
dedicated to investigating drug operations, authorities say the
discovery of the trailer full of marijuana was due to a lone deputy
who stopped the driver of the truck for reportedly making an unsafe
lane change.

Deputy Glenn Warrington first noticed the tractor trailer
because it was tailgating another truck heading north on Interstate
15, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal
court.

Warrington was driving up alongside the tailgating truck when it
changed lanes and nearly hit his marked patrol car, the complaint
states.

Warrington pulled the truck over and spoke with the driver, whom
authorities identified as Angel Guillen-Raya.

Right about the time it became clear that Guillen-Raya did not
have the right paperwork for transporting produce, another deputy
arrived with a drug-sniffing dog who alerted the officers to the
scent of marijuana at back of the truck, the complaint states.

When they rolled up the rear door, they said, they saw large
cardboard boxes stacked floor to ceiling.

Photos released by the Sheriff's Department showed that some of
the boxes were marked as if they carried watermelons. There didn't
turn out to be any watermelon, but there were large bales of what
officers identified as marijuana wrapped in plastic.

It was soon determined that not only was it the largest U.S.
seizure in a decade, but also the largest ever recorded in
Riverside County.

Some of the bales were marked with the handwritten warning "No
tocar," which means "Don't touch" in Spanish. Others were marked
with the Spanish word for "car."

Authorities have not said where they think the drugs came from
or who else might be involved in the trafficking.

The criminal complaint accused Guillen-Raya of violating federal
laws by knowingly possessing the marijuana and intending to
distribute it.

No information was available Thursday about whether Guillen-Raya
was still in custody.